Discussion: yoga

So how do you manage when sitting on the floor with legs crossed? I used some blocks under my knees, but that still hurt. Seems okay if I wear my braces. The teacher suggested putting something behind my bent knee like a washcloth.

I just kind of cross my legs at the ankles and let my knees stick up in the air. As long as I keep my ankles pretty far away from my body and don't try to bend the knees very far, sitting that way doesn't hurt. Not a particularly "good" yoga pose, but then again, at least for my instructor, yoga is all about doing what you can for your own body and modifying things whenever necessary.

One of the worst for me is actually child's pose - my butt is way up in the air and I sometimes even put a pillow under my shins since that helps relieve the pressure on the knee joints.

My instructor and I tried putting things behind my knees as you suggest, but that would only help if I could bend them quite a bit farther than I can so we've given up on that.

That's what was so surprising about last night's class. Most quad stretches involve bending the knees all the way, but the ones she did were fine for me to do and I could definitely feel the stretch.